Hey. It’s Bob Nagin. And in this episode of Real Retail TV, we’re going to explore why creating great standards is so important to the success of your retail store.

So let’s talk about standards. And the first thing, of course, we need to do is we need to define what a standard is. And so I’m looking at the dictionary here and it says there’s two definitions. One is a level of quality or attainment. And the second one, which I think is a little more applicable to our conversation is an idea or thing used as a measure, norm, or model in comparative evaluations.

What does that mean? It means that this is a standard is the norm. This is the way things are done, at least how they should be done. What’s the problem with most retail stores and standards?

The problem is is that most retail stores don’t have standards or if they have standards, they’re not written down and communicated clearly.

And if they have standards that are written down, they aren’t communicated correctly. So let’s sort of back up. So the first thing to understand is that you have to clearly communicate your standards, your expectations for your team. So our good friend, Kimberly Rutenbeck, who, just retired as an executive at Room and Board, the furniture retailer, has a great quote. She says, if you don’t clearly communicate your standards, your team members have no choice but to create their own.

Let me say that again. If you don’t clearly communicate your standards, your team members have no choice but to create their own.

And here’s the follow-up to that quote.

And you have no right to complain when they don’t do things the way that you want them done. The standards in your head, you have to get it out of your head and get it to your team members. The same standard, the same way to everybody on your team.

So how does this happen? So often when, you know so you you write down your standards in your training manual.

You create a training program. You know, if you go to retail brilliance dot com, you can see this thing called the custom course, which is the perfect place for you to put your standards, to put a training program together. But the problem that people have even with standards, even with communicating standards, is they don’t do it correctly.

Most people, when they train, when they communicate, they communicate in the language of responsibility.

And a responsibility is what to do. But if you really want to amplify the effectiveness of your training, you, write your standards in the language of behaviors, and behaviors are how to do it. So let me give you an example.

Wash the windows.

Is wash the windows a responsibility of what to do or a behavior?

How to do it? And, of course, the answer is it is a responsibility.

Wash the windows.

The problem with telling someone to wash the windows is that their standard and your standard may be wildly different.

So when my mother-in-law would wash a window, she wanted it to be so clean that a bird would fly into it. Right? It was it’s just as as clean as air. You ask a teenage boy to wash a window, what do they do?

They go and spit on their sleeve, and they kinda rub it a little bit. So there’s same responsibility, different results. But what are you trying to do when you train? You’re trying to get consistent results.

Everybody doing everything the same way every time, which is why your training must be in the language of behaviors.

So let’s take washing the windows and reframe it in the language of behaviors.

How about this? Wash the windows inside and out to the corners and the edges until there are no smudges or streaks and put the stuff away.

Now is that a little more clear? And the answer is, of course, it is. But that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to communicate our standards, your standards as the business owner in such a way that everybody is getting it, everybody understands what it is, everybody’s accountable to it, and that’s the way it starts to happen.

This is how you build a culture. Now here’s a great story that I just love. So in our whiz bang retailers Facebook group, which if you’re not a member, I would encourage you to join, Troy Fagan, had this post about two weeks ago. He said, Bob is right.

And he said, I saw Bob years ago speak at a trade show, and he gave the wash the window example.

He said, at the time, I thought this was ludicrous. His words, this was ludicrous.

But Bob was right because what he had to do then is he was trying to teach or he wanted someone to vacuum the floor.

What he found was when he said, before you leave tonight, vacuum the floor, that vacuum the floor was a responsibility.

And what he needed to do was train vacuuming the floor in the language of behaviors.

So it may seem trivial that you would train to in the language of behaviors, but think about all the things in your business that if it was done correctly every single time, your business would be significantly better.

How do you close? Your open and closing checklist needs to be trained. It needs to be trained in the language of behaviors.

How you give back change needs to be, communicated and trained in the language of behaviors. Your nonnegotiable standards around selling need to be trained in the language of behaviors.

So the more you understand this idea of communicating your standards in the language of behaviors, in the context of a training program, the more deeply the roots of your culture are going to become.

Seth Godin defends defines culture as people like us doing things this way. And if you want people like us to do things the way that you want them to done be done, teach in the language of behaviors.

I hope you found this helpful. If you did, put your comment down below. If not, we’ll see you next week.